


Adjustment Period

by chii



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-08-26
Updated: 2012-08-26
Packaged: 2017-11-12 22:25:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/496303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chii/pseuds/chii
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dealing with the insanity of the Blood Gulch crew is made only marginally better by the knowledge that Carolina's got his back and he has hers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Adjustment Period

**Author's Note:**

> 8( this was supposed to be porn goddamnit. NEXT TIME, FIC, NEXT TIME. also this is all for mari's excellent carolina who makes me chinhands stupidly at my screen so often.

The others don't call him crazy anymore, thankfully-- they've avoided that since he snapped at them the first time, and Carolina had reached for her gun. That had been enough to scare them into mumbling things about how they had to go clean the base and watch for such and such and just generally make themselves not known. 

He's no fool, though- they don't call him crazy, but they give him and Carolina such a wide berth half the time, using that goddamn tone he hates so much that he knows that it's not just simple fear at this point. Wash can't begrudge them their caution, but it doesn't mean he likes it any more than she does, because the two of them are far, far better off than either of them were back then. 

It's not saying much-- Wash still wakes up in the middle of the night, thrashing and reaching for his gun, pointing it at the shadows with his finger on the trigger, and Carolina still jumps at shadows when she thinks no one is watching, still whispers things to herself under her breath when it's been a particularly hard day. 

“Please, just be quiet,” she murmurs, fingers buried in the guts of her gun, oil smeared over her skin, and Wash doesn't miss the way they tremble, the same as his do when it gets to be too much. There's no way to fix it, nothing to do but just ride it out, but that doesn't make it any easier. 

He's stopped answering her when he catches her saying that-- the first time he tried, she'd snapped at him, told him that when he gets his shit in line, then he can call her on hers, and he couldn't disagree. Now, it's enough to sit on the bed behind her, and just lean back, watching the window while she watches the door and cleans their guns, the metal clink familiar and soothing more than anything else. 

 

 

When they travel, it takes a while to get into the rhythm of things, mostly because the others have a set way of doing things, and it's. Well, truthfully, it's fucking ridiculous, and absolutely insane, and he doesn't ever speculate on the fact that he's calling anything crazy. Getting a watch rotation set up is like pulling teeth-- Caboose won't take a watch without Epsilon, and Epsilon throws a fit at having to even do watch, but gradually, they get a schedule and Wash deliberately doesn't think at all when Epsilon takes over his after realizing that Wash has been filling in for the Reds when they ditch theirs. 

It's nearing midnight by the time that he makes his way back to the room he shares with Carolina-- necessity for them, just as much as it is for the others, though for different reasons. She's still awake, and it shouldn't surprise him but it does. 

“Can't sleep?” 

Wash strips his armor off down the to black base suit, and crawls onto the makeshift cot next to her, taking the side closest to the door, setting his gun out within reach while she covers the window, her own close. 

“Not right now.” 

He doesn't question her any further, settling in and feeling her scoot back, the tension leeching from the both of them at the knowledge that this is the safest they'll be right now, with the two of them covering the entrance and the exit. It's always easier to sleep like this, regardless of who is on watch; he knows neither of them really have faith that if something comes, the watch system will really do anything, but short of doing every shift themselves, they'll work with what they can. 

Wash falls asleep to the sound of her breathing, slow and even, and the flicker of blue down the hall, licking up under the door from where Epsilon's on watch, and isn't surprised when the dreams he has aren't his.


End file.
